Search
Purple Phoenix Games (2266 KP) rated Fossilis in Tabletop Games
Feb 17, 2021
Whether it lasted for days, months, or years, I’m willing to bet that you all have had some minor (or maybe even major) fascination with dinosaurs at some point in your life. I am definitely no exception to that statement. When I was younger, I absolutely went through a paleontology phase, and the “Jurassic Park” movies have kept that love of dinosaurs alive. So when I saw KTBG was coming out with a game about excavating dinosaur bones, I was immediately sold. Did it live up to my childhood expectations, or was this excavation a bust?
Fossilis is a game of set collection and tile placement in which players are working to excavate and collect sets of dinosaur bones for display in museums across the world. To setup for a game, prepare the dig site as described in the rulebook. Populate the Score Track board with 9 random Skill tokens, 3 face-down randomly selected Event cards, and a Plaster pool based on the player count. Create a Market of Tool and Supply cards, as well as a Dinosaur Display. Each player receives a mat, Paleontologist meeple, and score marker in their chosen color. Pick a starting player, and in reverse turn order, players place their Paleontologists onto a corner tile of the dig site. The game is now ready to begin!
Every players’ turn has 3 steps: Actions, Market, and Lab. At the start of your turn, you have 4 Energy to spend on Actions. The available action choices are: Gain 1 Plaster (from the Plaster pool), Move up to 2 spaces (orthogonally or diagonally), Climb onto the Dig Site (if your Paleontologist was knocked off the board), Place 1 Sand tile (anywhere on the Dig Site), Dig 1 tile (slide a terrain tile 1 space in any direction), or Extract (excavate a bone/hammer). With the exception of Digging, all other Actions cost 1 Energy to perform. Digging 1 tile costs energy dependent on the type of terrain tile being moved. To dig Sand is 1 Energy, Clay is 2, and Stone is 3. To Dig, you select 1 tile that is orthogonally adjacent to your Paleontologist, and slide it 1 space in any direction you wish. Tiles that are pushed off the edge are claimed by that player, and can be used to purchase cards from the Market. It is possible for a Paleontologist to be pushed off the Dig Site, so watch out! To perform the Extract action, you will excavate a bone or hammer from an open pit orthogonally adjacent to your Paleontologist. Extraction costs Plaster dependent on the type of bone being collected. For example, extracting a tooth costs 2 Plaster, while a skull costs 6. Extracting hammers has no cost, and you immediately trade the hammer for one of the available Skill tokens in play. The Skill tokens provide benefits for the remainder of the game. Once a player has spent their Energy, they move to the next phase.
On your turn, you may buy 1 card from the Market: either a Tool or Supply card. These are purchased using the icons on any tiles you collected during the Action phase. Supply cards gain you immediate resources, while Tool cards are saved for use during a future Action step. After the Market phase is the Lab phase. You may claim a Dinosaur from the Display if you have at least one of the required bones for that Dinosaur. You can only ever have 1 Dinosaur in your Lab at a time, so strategize carefully. At any point during a turn, you can score the Dinosaur in your lab – either for full points if all required bones are present on the card, or partial points if you only have some of the required bones.
Events are triggered 3 times throughout the game when the Plaster pool has been depleted. The active player draws the top Event card, and follows the instructions on the card. Once an Event has been performed, the Plaster pool is refilled and play continues with the next player. After the 3rd event has been triggered, the Plaster pool is refilled one last time. When the last Plaster pool is depleted for this final time, the game ends. Players count up all their points, and the player with the highest score wins!
At first it may seem overwhelming, like there is a lot going on, but after a couple of turns the gameplay feels intuitive and streamlined. There are quite a few aspects to keep track of, but the overall flow of the game makes it feel clear and concise. During my plays, I have never once felt lost or confused as to what the next turn step is. The tight gameplay also lends itself to providing a variety of strategic options for players. Do you want to go for all the highest-scoring Dinosaurs, even though their bones take longer to collect? Or maybe you want to snag as many lower-scoring Dinosaurs as possible, since they should be faster to collect. You can earn end-game points based on Characteristic sets of Dinosaurs (carnivorous, herbivore, etc), so maybe you decide to focus on those sets. Or if you’re in a particularly confrontational mood, maybe you want to knock opposing Paleontologists off the Dig Site, causing them to ‘waste’ an Energy on a future turn just to climb back on into the play area. There really is no right answer as to what strategy is a sure-win, and I like that I can choose and adapt my strategies based on the current standings in the game.
Probably my favorite innovative mechanic in Fossilis is the 3D terrain and ‘digging’ actions. When setting up the game, bones and hammers are randomly scattered and distributed around the Dig Site before terrain tiles are added. So there is absolutely no way to know where you should dig for what you want! Just like a real paleontologist, you’ve got to give it your best guess. I have had some frustrating turns, spending lots of Energy to dig a tile just to find the space to be empty! Or maybe you dig and hit the motherlode, which just means you’ll probably have to fight off other paleontologists for the bones that you need. The 3D board adds another element of strategy that heightens the gameplay and makes it more immersive.
Let’s touch on components for a moment. They are AWESOME. Admittedly, I have the Kickstarter version, but I just love how well-produced this game is. The terrain tiles are nice and thick bakelite-esque tiles, and they are just dang fun to manipulate. The plaster and bones are small, but pretty detailed and sturdy for their size. The artwork on the cards is colorful and clear, the Paleontologist meeples are cute little wooden bits, and the cardboard bits are all good quality. Excellent production quality all around.
It should come as no surprise, based on my score, that I love this game. The gameplay is immersive and engaging, the mechanics add a neat twist to your normal set collection/tile placement game, and the ability to adapt strategy on the fly means that nobody is truly out of the game because of one bad turn. Purple Phoenix Games gives Fossilis a roaring 11 / 12. If you’re looking for a good dinosaur game, look no further. Yeah, they’re technically just bones here, but it still counts!
Fossilis is a game of set collection and tile placement in which players are working to excavate and collect sets of dinosaur bones for display in museums across the world. To setup for a game, prepare the dig site as described in the rulebook. Populate the Score Track board with 9 random Skill tokens, 3 face-down randomly selected Event cards, and a Plaster pool based on the player count. Create a Market of Tool and Supply cards, as well as a Dinosaur Display. Each player receives a mat, Paleontologist meeple, and score marker in their chosen color. Pick a starting player, and in reverse turn order, players place their Paleontologists onto a corner tile of the dig site. The game is now ready to begin!
Every players’ turn has 3 steps: Actions, Market, and Lab. At the start of your turn, you have 4 Energy to spend on Actions. The available action choices are: Gain 1 Plaster (from the Plaster pool), Move up to 2 spaces (orthogonally or diagonally), Climb onto the Dig Site (if your Paleontologist was knocked off the board), Place 1 Sand tile (anywhere on the Dig Site), Dig 1 tile (slide a terrain tile 1 space in any direction), or Extract (excavate a bone/hammer). With the exception of Digging, all other Actions cost 1 Energy to perform. Digging 1 tile costs energy dependent on the type of terrain tile being moved. To dig Sand is 1 Energy, Clay is 2, and Stone is 3. To Dig, you select 1 tile that is orthogonally adjacent to your Paleontologist, and slide it 1 space in any direction you wish. Tiles that are pushed off the edge are claimed by that player, and can be used to purchase cards from the Market. It is possible for a Paleontologist to be pushed off the Dig Site, so watch out! To perform the Extract action, you will excavate a bone or hammer from an open pit orthogonally adjacent to your Paleontologist. Extraction costs Plaster dependent on the type of bone being collected. For example, extracting a tooth costs 2 Plaster, while a skull costs 6. Extracting hammers has no cost, and you immediately trade the hammer for one of the available Skill tokens in play. The Skill tokens provide benefits for the remainder of the game. Once a player has spent their Energy, they move to the next phase.
On your turn, you may buy 1 card from the Market: either a Tool or Supply card. These are purchased using the icons on any tiles you collected during the Action phase. Supply cards gain you immediate resources, while Tool cards are saved for use during a future Action step. After the Market phase is the Lab phase. You may claim a Dinosaur from the Display if you have at least one of the required bones for that Dinosaur. You can only ever have 1 Dinosaur in your Lab at a time, so strategize carefully. At any point during a turn, you can score the Dinosaur in your lab – either for full points if all required bones are present on the card, or partial points if you only have some of the required bones.
Events are triggered 3 times throughout the game when the Plaster pool has been depleted. The active player draws the top Event card, and follows the instructions on the card. Once an Event has been performed, the Plaster pool is refilled and play continues with the next player. After the 3rd event has been triggered, the Plaster pool is refilled one last time. When the last Plaster pool is depleted for this final time, the game ends. Players count up all their points, and the player with the highest score wins!
At first it may seem overwhelming, like there is a lot going on, but after a couple of turns the gameplay feels intuitive and streamlined. There are quite a few aspects to keep track of, but the overall flow of the game makes it feel clear and concise. During my plays, I have never once felt lost or confused as to what the next turn step is. The tight gameplay also lends itself to providing a variety of strategic options for players. Do you want to go for all the highest-scoring Dinosaurs, even though their bones take longer to collect? Or maybe you want to snag as many lower-scoring Dinosaurs as possible, since they should be faster to collect. You can earn end-game points based on Characteristic sets of Dinosaurs (carnivorous, herbivore, etc), so maybe you decide to focus on those sets. Or if you’re in a particularly confrontational mood, maybe you want to knock opposing Paleontologists off the Dig Site, causing them to ‘waste’ an Energy on a future turn just to climb back on into the play area. There really is no right answer as to what strategy is a sure-win, and I like that I can choose and adapt my strategies based on the current standings in the game.
Probably my favorite innovative mechanic in Fossilis is the 3D terrain and ‘digging’ actions. When setting up the game, bones and hammers are randomly scattered and distributed around the Dig Site before terrain tiles are added. So there is absolutely no way to know where you should dig for what you want! Just like a real paleontologist, you’ve got to give it your best guess. I have had some frustrating turns, spending lots of Energy to dig a tile just to find the space to be empty! Or maybe you dig and hit the motherlode, which just means you’ll probably have to fight off other paleontologists for the bones that you need. The 3D board adds another element of strategy that heightens the gameplay and makes it more immersive.
Let’s touch on components for a moment. They are AWESOME. Admittedly, I have the Kickstarter version, but I just love how well-produced this game is. The terrain tiles are nice and thick bakelite-esque tiles, and they are just dang fun to manipulate. The plaster and bones are small, but pretty detailed and sturdy for their size. The artwork on the cards is colorful and clear, the Paleontologist meeples are cute little wooden bits, and the cardboard bits are all good quality. Excellent production quality all around.
It should come as no surprise, based on my score, that I love this game. The gameplay is immersive and engaging, the mechanics add a neat twist to your normal set collection/tile placement game, and the ability to adapt strategy on the fly means that nobody is truly out of the game because of one bad turn. Purple Phoenix Games gives Fossilis a roaring 11 / 12. If you’re looking for a good dinosaur game, look no further. Yeah, they’re technically just bones here, but it still counts!
Fiete Quiztime
Education and Games
App
It´s Quiztime! In this fun and educational trivia quiz, parents and children ages 4 and up can work...
LeftSideCut (3776 KP) rated Jurassic World (2015) in Movies
Jun 7, 2019 (Updated Dec 4, 2019)
The thing that annoys me most about Jurassic World is how good it could have been. There was a long break between movies here - almost taking time to regroup a bit - and the trailers looked good enough.
Unfortunately, the finished product was underwhelming for me.
There's a lot of stupid going on throughout, but the movie takes itself too seriously to get away with it
(Especially the villains plot to take raptors and use them in Afghanistan - wtf)
The set up to the inevitable disaster is riddled with product placement, and an average script (and a weird sub plot about the two kids parents getting divorced), and then when all hell breaks loose, it just descends into Hollywood nonsense (the scenes with Chris Pratt riding alongside raptors on a motorbike is one of the many times I rolled my eyes), it's a far cry from the original.
Another thing - the main dinosaur threat comes in the shape of a super crazy lab created hybrid dinosaur, which just seems a little... unnecessary - just regular dinosaurs are pretty damn scary!
I like both Chris Pratt, and Bryce Dallas-Howard, unfortunately the chemistry between the two doesn't quite connect. The rest of the cast are fine, and mostly likable.
It's not an awful film by any means, it's just... Ok. I'm sure I'll find myself watching it again at some point, I guess I just wanted more!
Unfortunately, the finished product was underwhelming for me.
There's a lot of stupid going on throughout, but the movie takes itself too seriously to get away with it
(Especially the villains plot to take raptors and use them in Afghanistan - wtf)
The set up to the inevitable disaster is riddled with product placement, and an average script (and a weird sub plot about the two kids parents getting divorced), and then when all hell breaks loose, it just descends into Hollywood nonsense (the scenes with Chris Pratt riding alongside raptors on a motorbike is one of the many times I rolled my eyes), it's a far cry from the original.
Another thing - the main dinosaur threat comes in the shape of a super crazy lab created hybrid dinosaur, which just seems a little... unnecessary - just regular dinosaurs are pretty damn scary!
I like both Chris Pratt, and Bryce Dallas-Howard, unfortunately the chemistry between the two doesn't quite connect. The rest of the cast are fine, and mostly likable.
It's not an awful film by any means, it's just... Ok. I'm sure I'll find myself watching it again at some point, I guess I just wanted more!
JT (287 KP) rated The Dinosaur Project (2012) in Movies
Mar 10, 2020
More found footage, this time of the prehistoric persuasion, there really is nothing new here and nothing to get excited about in all honesty. The opening sees a boat pick up a backpack floating in the river which in contains tapes showcasing the efforts of a group of explorers who get a little more than they bargained for when they head into the Congo jungle.
Luke Marchant desperate to please and win over his intrepid father sneaks on board the plane taking the group to the jungle, once there they are guided to where it is believed dinosaurs once roamed. The footage is all shot from the POV of the film crew while Luke sets up mobile cameras in and around the camp site, even managing to attach one to a baby dinosaur giving us quite a unique view point.
The film moves through the gears, but at the end of the day it’s no Jurassic Park. There are some nice scenes and the CGI is pretty good, but that is as far as it goes. The cast of relative unknowns don’t do enough to make the film anywhere near as tense as it probably should be, and we’re better off waiting till a dinosaur appears on screen to get any real enjoyment out of it.
It certainly won’t be the worst film you’ll ever see, but you won’t miss anything should you choose to avoid it.
Luke Marchant desperate to please and win over his intrepid father sneaks on board the plane taking the group to the jungle, once there they are guided to where it is believed dinosaurs once roamed. The footage is all shot from the POV of the film crew while Luke sets up mobile cameras in and around the camp site, even managing to attach one to a baby dinosaur giving us quite a unique view point.
The film moves through the gears, but at the end of the day it’s no Jurassic Park. There are some nice scenes and the CGI is pretty good, but that is as far as it goes. The cast of relative unknowns don’t do enough to make the film anywhere near as tense as it probably should be, and we’re better off waiting till a dinosaur appears on screen to get any real enjoyment out of it.
It certainly won’t be the worst film you’ll ever see, but you won’t miss anything should you choose to avoid it.
Gareth von Kallenbach (980 KP) rated Ice Age: Continental Drift (2012) in Movies
Aug 7, 2019
“Ice Age: Continental Drift” starts with Sid the Sloth telling a cute joke that sets up the whole movie plot and telling a new character how he and his friends fought dinosaurs and glaciers in the past. Manny, Sid and Diego are back on a new adventure going around the world looking for Sids prize acorn.
Manny is sadly separated from his mate Ellie and their daughter. While the trio are on the iceberg Peaches is on land trying to keep up with the cool kids of her class, which brings in a lot of new celebrity voices including Drake, Nicki Minaj and Heather Morris from Glee.
The story then jumps back to the iceberg when the trio comes across a Pirate Monkey named Captain Gutt, and a love interest for Diego in the form of a white tiger named Shira voiced by Jennifer Lopez. The Pirates try to take over and stop the friends from sailing on the high seas.
The movie tends to drag a little and songs are also now included in the dialog. The movie does deliver some rude jokes that younger audiences may not get, which makes it a family flick and a little bit of everything for the whole family. There are some laugh out loud moments and a few tears to be shed, however you would like to slice it, it will make for a nice afternoon movie with the family with younger children.
Manny is sadly separated from his mate Ellie and their daughter. While the trio are on the iceberg Peaches is on land trying to keep up with the cool kids of her class, which brings in a lot of new celebrity voices including Drake, Nicki Minaj and Heather Morris from Glee.
The story then jumps back to the iceberg when the trio comes across a Pirate Monkey named Captain Gutt, and a love interest for Diego in the form of a white tiger named Shira voiced by Jennifer Lopez. The Pirates try to take over and stop the friends from sailing on the high seas.
The movie tends to drag a little and songs are also now included in the dialog. The movie does deliver some rude jokes that younger audiences may not get, which makes it a family flick and a little bit of everything for the whole family. There are some laugh out loud moments and a few tears to be shed, however you would like to slice it, it will make for a nice afternoon movie with the family with younger children.
Nammet: A Celebration of Isle of Wight Food and Drink
Book
The Isle of Wight is nationally acclaimed as a producer of quality food and drink - known as Nammet...
Portfolio: The Complete Various Drawings
Mark Schultz and Zander Cannon
6.0
Rate It
Book
During an impressive period--2005 through 2012--Mark Schultz turned his attention to producing a...
Eat Me: A Natural and Unnatural History of Cannibalism
Book
Cannibalism. It's the last, greatest taboo: the stuff of urban legends and ancient myths, airline...
Bring Back the King: The New Science of De-Extinction
Book
If you could bring back just one animal from the past, what would you choose? It can be anyone or...
On the Wing: Insects, Pterosaurs, Birds, Bats and the Evolution of Animal Flight
Book
From airplanes to birds, the phenomenon of flight has always amazed and mystified humans. Therefore,...